Chapter 1: Escape from Despair
There were intensely dark times within a certain forest; times that were not dark necessarily because of how the forest lacked radiance in its atmosphere, which was nothing short of what one would address as eerie or ominous. No, those times were dark mainly because of number of cruel deeds that had been taking place in that particular setting. One of them involved two girls who gotten themselves entailed into an act that not only contained hellish aspects but also nearly resulted in extreme depression on both of their parts. Oddly enough, though I actually knew both of them.
The girls involved in this occurrence were both young and far from coming of age; their names were Viola and Ellen, and like I've said before, I've met the two of the separately in some point in my life, albeit neither in the most favorable conditions or directly. That being said, I never thought I would be forced to resurface my connections with either of them. One of them was the daughter of an intergenerational friend of mine, named XX; the other one of them was a witch. Little did I know, however, she would be the same witch I met in my early adolescence who I would then be putting down once and for all. Others before me have failed to do this task and having been fed up with it they finally let me into the fray, saying that their patience was dwindling drastically.
Killing that witch in particular used to be on the basis of morality, which it still somewhat is but now it is on the basis of bounty. As certain people before me have failed to do so and either died or failed accordingly, the expense of her death drastically skyrocketed. That money eventually went up to a point where it became a high enough bounty that would set anyone for life. To me, that would finally allow me to escape the dread path I had resigned my fate to, but little did I knew it came with a price, losing the sight of the one goal I've always had in mind.
The life of an executioner came with a price in which I eventually became utterly devastated at what decision I made and followed in life. Granted that I receive a plethora of money coming into this business, it came with the price of selling my own soul and, by extension, my humanity, albeit figuratively. However, I now have regrets because some things have been crawling at the back of my skull, begging my humanity to resurface causing me to feel regret.
Even now that still happens, though I try very hard to avoid thinking about as well as looking back to it. What I had been trying to prevent, I nearly caused; it came at me full circle.
Back at the time, however, had I not been there to stop what was going on, then the events that would follow would have taken a more grievous turn; it would have been too late with the damage not only being great in regards to its magnitude but above all irreversible to not only them, but me as well as everyone else around them, resulting in chaos. People would not necessarily die but scarred for life, something I learned through repetition, the hardest way one could get into their system.
But enough of this jaded philosophy, allow me to narrate the comeuppance that life sought out for me in the story that follows.
It was a midsummer's evening; a small storm had brewed as the winds let out a mild breeze into the woods, which were obscured by the shadows of its trees as well as the lack of radiance in the sky.
Somewhere dead center of these woods two people were present, exchanging looks as the winds soared through their clothing. The two were both girls who seemed to be of a relatively young age. The first of the girls looked as though she were of early adolescence. She had golden-blond hair that was styled with messy bangs and braided near the shoulder accompanied with big bulging green eyes that gave her an angelic connotation. Clothing-wise, she wore a white dress adorn with an apron complete with brown, leathery boots for footwear. Her soft, innocent appearance made her ostensibly seem humane and considerate at a glance.
In front of her lay another girl who was in a near-death state; her physical appearance was severely deteriorated to the point where she cannot be described as human to those concerned in the looks department. Her body was bloody from head-to-toe; she had no eyes, only void eye sockets that contained blood. She couldn't see and looking at those eyes made one tremble in fear, as they would feel like they would be sucked into them. Her long back-length hair was of a light shade of purple adorn with a red bow, but it wasn't that noticeable underneath the massive amount of bloodshed and mud caked into it. She had no legs either, only bloody leg stumps where they used to be. Injuries aside, the girl also seemed to have some sort of skin disease making her look as an abomination. Her skin was very pale and grotesque with some bone showing. Her clothing consisted of a white shirt and satin red one-piece, drenched with blood in certain places mainly from her fresh injuries and the newly inflicted knife wound in her stomach. Above all else, she gave off the aura that she seemed evil and monstrous at first glance, if not carefully inspected; she hardly resembled a human in her unfortunate state. However, even that wasn't the horrifying part; what was both depressing and disturbing was that the girl only seemed under the age of ten which was hard to tell due to her ever-decomposing body.
Most people whose assessment ran off of cultural myths and stereotypes would suggest that those descriptions to be accurate, that the dynamics that set those girls apart adequately defined their characteristics. However, it should be note that despite the validity of their claims, it is also foolish to judge by ones physical appearance as such preconceived notions on the basis of one's appearance made people dense.
Neither did either of the girls knew that somewhere on the other side of the trees adjacent to them, stood an individual whose appearance was cloaked by the darkness resulting from the environment. He had noticed what was happening in the distance despite the indiscernible nature of the situation. Staggered at the thought of two girls being out so late, let alone in the forest despite the legends of a witch in the forest who kidnaps children, he jumps behind a nearby tree without his presence being know, leaning discreetly at its bark as he observed what he could of the situation. He wanted to know firsthand at why those two were here place so late in the evening.
The individual's description was hard to make out due to the forest being pitch-black and loud with the drizzle pouring down. Likewise, he could not make out who was who in the darkness in front of him, only silhouettes, and not hear anything as a result of the moderate amount of rain. In spite of inability to properly assess of what was there, he had some idea to what was going on.
After a somewhat prolonged silence, Viola, the girl in the blond hair finally broke it, "Boy you're stubborn." She said it so casually, seemingly apathetic to the fact that she was so late, let alone to the deformed girl lying in front of her. That's when things turned a complete one-eighty as she continued, stepping on her for a moment cold-heartedly "How long is going to chase me? You know that body won't last long…" She then laughed manically; making it clear something was off about her.
The other girl, the disfigured one, Ellen tried to speak with hardly any words forming from her dry mouth. The girl pushed herself to speak despite the futility, "Gh...hh...hgg...gha..." as she crawled towards Viola as she let out sounds that hardly resembled that of a human being. She wasn't what her appearance gave off as, while she was an abomination on the outside, it was apparent on the inside she was in pain
The situation was now clear, these two had-switch bodies; revealing who she actually is, Viola, who was actually Ellen, despite the difficulty to understand what the real Viola is saying, responded "Hm? 'Give it back?' No way. This body hurts much less." She turned away from her, resuming on her speech, "You gave it to me in the first place. Why should I have to give it back? Right… Viola?" she turned around again, kneeling down to face her.
"You felt so sorry for me. I couldn't even move from my own bed. That's why I used my magic to trade bodies with you.", Ellen said, walking back a few feet as she let out a malicious smile, "Just for a day?... Heehee… I guess I did say that…"
Feeling triumphant and haughty, Ellen continued, "I was surprised you could trap me with my own power... but, to no avail. After all it is my house, yes? I was guided by that house all the way. So I was ensured to escape."
The deformed girl who was initially thought to be Ellen was actually Viola, the real Viola. She began to squirm towards her but she kept forgetting the injuries limited her movement. She wanted to cry, asking herself why would her friend Ellen doing this to her, she kept asking herself aloud in her head. She had been nothing but kind to her and here she was mercilessly torturing her physically and emotionally with her now trying to take her life from her.
Ellen continued with her speech, arms crossed, "Still not dead? I have to applaud your tenacity." She began to change her look to one that expressed annoyance briefly before changing it back to her slasher smile, adding on to what she said, "Ah? Could it be? Are you that worried about you father? Oh I know you and your father- a close family of two. Those memories stayed in your body. He's a kind man, a hunter isn't he and he even sent you that letter. What a good father." Her expression changed to that of mock sympathy, "So then, I suppose you're worried about what'll happen when you're gone, right? It'll be fine, I will just give him Viola's share of love and I'll take her share of love, too. So…"
A voiced echoed far behind Ellen, calling out "Viola?!" It was her father – Viola's father. He had yelled at Viola yesterday about going into the forest, knowing that a witch that would dwell deep within it. He seemed to have been searching for her for a while now.
Overjoyed by the sound of her father's voice, thinking she felt safe before she realized she was anything but safe in her current situation. To her father, Ellen was actually Viola due to the fact that they switched bodies and Viola was resembled some sort of monstrosity that vaguely resembled a human. What was she going to do?
Hearing the sound of Viola's dad voice, Ellen deviously smiled for a second before putting on a farce expression of fear and breathlessness. She let out a make-believe scream, which was loud enough to grasp his attention.
Hearing what appeared to be his daughter's scream, Viola's dad ran over to the direction of the scream, eventually encountering the girls. Genuinely concerned about his daughter, he asked her, "Viola, are you safe?! Are you hurt anywhere?", not knowing whom he was asking wasn't his daughter at all.
"I'm fine daddy", Ellen said innocently, rushing to his side as she quickly pretended to cower behind him in fear of what she pointed at, Viola, "Ah...that thing is what attacked me!", expressing sham panic as she grabbed his side.
As the body she resided in broke down further, Viola began crawling to her father despite her mangled stated, trying to form words, sentences, meanings from what was left of her throat, "Fh... fha... aa... th...", she tried with every fiber of her being to get closer, "...dh ...dh... dha... di..." She felt weak and broken and, above all, hopeless but she still strived herself to push forward.
"VIOLA, STAND BACK!", her father said on the top of his lungs, it was so loud that the individual hiding from behind the other side of nearby trees could hear it despite the noise earlier "S-STAY AWAY, MONSTER!". The person now had an idea what was going on, they assumed a girl was a monster but for what reason. Despite that decided to wait for the right time to strike, having his blade on standby. His eyes subtly became red, letting his fury be known, he wanted to intervene, all the while he thinking, "No, not yet, I know it's tempting but now's not the time to take action." Adjusting himself in his position, he watched the inhumanity commence before him. But what really got him was that voice, he heard it before but claimed that he doesn't remember where exactly.
"Daddy, Please don't shoot, it's me, your daughter, please don't!", Viola thought, pleading her dad to no avail, as if that was a possibility. She couldn't reason with him in her current state and even if she could talk, would he believe her; the situation wasn't looking favorable for her. She couldn't walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't even see, she was injured and above all contained that horrible skin disease that made her even less human; she was sure she was going to die. Suddenly, she started casting a spell.
The sound of bullets pierced through the rain, twice; the person in the nearby decided to intervene but averted when he sensed a demon nearby. The situation was ambiguous; he didn't know what he could to help in anyway.
Using whatever little magic she had left at her disposal, Viola, without letting anyone present there notice, used the last of it to deflect the first bullet that came her way. The bullet magically bounced away from her and shot through a tree in the left side. Nobody except the yet-to-be identified individual noticed this act of self-preservation. However, since she only managed to deflect one of the bullets, the second one immediately pierced her in the shoulder. She was out of magic now, with her health rapidly declining as she sadly perceived the situation around her. Bleeding and now on the state of near-death, Viola let out a blood-curdling scream as she fell back to the ground in a death-like state. She had survived but it looked like her soul had already moved on, she was alive but so close to death it didn't even matter to her anymore.
"Goodbye, Viola", Ellen thought, assuming Viola was now dead, as she and Viola's father now leave the scene, giggling as she followed her new 'daddy'.
Minutes later after they left, the person hiding noticed something crawling out of the bushes opposite to him. It was a black cat, which somehow reacted almost indifferently to the near-dead corpse Viola's soul resided in. Its eyes glimmered with malevolence. Upon better assessment that this cat was not a normal cat at all, but an unfortunate cat that ended up becoming a demon's host, it was the same demon that gave Ellen her powers and assisted her into escaping. The mystery figure that had been behind the trees all this time finally decided to take action, noticing he had been the one he was sensing.
The cat approached Viola's damaged body, grinning as it began showing teeth that are uncommon for a cat to have. "Yo", the demon said coolly and casually "Guess this is the end isn't it young one. I really wished you would entertain me a bit more but now at least I can finally devour a hard-earned soul after all this trouble."
Viola began it fade away as she began to close her empty eyelids as she thought, "Is this the end for me? No, no it can't be. No please, it can't end like this; surely my fate can't be this cruel. What did I ever do to deserve this? Daddy, please forgive me for all the trouble that I have ever caused you since I was little…. just… Please help me, SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!". As memories of her father and Ellen clouded her mind, Viola unwillingly decided to resign her fate to the demon at the end of this miserable contract.
Suddenly the demon stopped in its tracks and the rain stopped, he was trembling in fear, anger and hesitation, something demons almost NEVER do, especially when all happen at the same time. He must have realized that there was someone, no something else present there as well, something awful to their kind. His existence had made the demon change his usual, soft-spoken demeanor to a mare vicious and demanding one.
"Yo, who goes there, this is my hard-earned meal, get your own. Don't you remember the rules demons being territorial", the demon said, turning angrier by the second.
For the few seconds, nothing seemed to be present there, but the demon urged to look closer, seeing if there was another entity present. Suddenly almost out of thin air, a large fireball was flung at the demon cat which he did not bother to dodge. It hits him, scorching him as he began to shriek; it was as if his entire being was being torn apart not only on the outside, but inside as well; as if his spirit was attacking his body itself, these searing flames were unique in that sense.
The demon thought, "Fire's not supposed to hurt our kind, unless… NO…. how could the Hellfire itself be here, unless… NO! ANYONE BUT HIM! He is worse than us demons, the BANE OF OUR EXISTENCE, he's a BEAST that we demons despise. That monster is the worse death for any demon." He had always heard stories of this being, lost many of his kin because of him alone, but has never seen him face-to-face.
Fatally wounded and disappointed, the cat fled the scene, leaving Viola's badly mutilated body behind. Viola felt a moment of reprieve until the young man, who had been watching the entire scene and just responsible for the demon's retreat, came closer. Upon hearing the sound of his footsteps, Viola's relief had transformed into uncertainty. She did not know if this man, this BEING is either a friend or foe. Should she trust him or not? He did drive the cat away, but she did not know if she felt more terrified than before or to simply trust this man.
"He… Hee… Heel…p… me...eh...", Viola tried saying to him, her body was in pain and every fiber of her being felt the need of help anyone had to offer.
"Not another word child,", he said in a very deep yet charismatic voice that sounded safe to her. He put his hand over her cheek, wiping her tears away, "You're safe now, and I won't hurt you and make sure nothing else will. Just relax yourself."
Viola, relieved that her prayer had been answered, began to shake uncontrollably. The man urged her to calm dawn as his eyes stop glowing red, revealing their real color as the clouds subsided completely. They were a deep shade of gray but they seemed empty and dully faded with no visible emotions, making them seem almost lifeless and slightly disturbing.
The reason I decided to write this is because the ending depressed me to no end, much like everyone else. This story is somewhat a derivative work of some other TWH fanfiction but the characters I introduce come from a different story I have worked on for three years. I do not own any of the characters in The Witch's House; all rights of it go to Fummy. This is just my way to fill the void and sadness resulting in that ending.
Q/A: If any, leave them below. I'll try my best to answer them, if I don't answer, that could mean several things but I'll explain the specifics later.